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In the thick of Pittsburgh's first massive snowstorm last month, mayors from seven Midwest cities bravely made their way here Feb. 10 for the Mayors' Institute on City Design, hosted by the Remaking Cities Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. The mayors trekked through the Cultural District and then spent the next two days inside the Tour Theater of PNC Park working alongside eight design professionals from around the country.

Each mayor presented a case study on a project he was struggling with related to the redevelopment of vacant land, blighted properties or brownfields. The mayors received frank feedback and practical advice on their project from the design professionals and each other.

The case studies ranged from residential neighborhood blight to lakefront mixed-use projects to declining commercial corridors. Ten themes emerged from the sessions -- applicable not only for the visiting mayors, but also for anyone who cares about Pittsburgh:

1 There is hope.

Although the cities of the Midwest have lost jobs and population over the last 30 years as their manufacturing bases have declined, they also have great strengths in their historic cores, local institutions, cultural and recreational amenities, neighborhoods, waterfronts and, most of all, resilient and loyal citizens.

THE MAYORS:

• Illinois: Tim Davlin of Springfield

• Indiana: Dick Moore of Elkhart

• Ohio: William J. Healy II of Canton

• West Virginia: Danny Jones of Charleston and Kim Wolfe of Huntington

• Wisconsin: Keith G. Bosman of Kenosha and John Dickert of Racine

We are not "shrinking cities." Rather we are "cities in transition." We are not "Rust Belt" cities. Rather we are "Water Belt" cities blessed with walkable neighborhoods, diverse economies, verdant landscapes and abundant water -- in contrast to the "sand cities" of the "Sun-Drought" Belt."

2 Design matters.

Projects are not single entities but are part of a block, a neighborhood, a city, a region. Design guidelines and zoning that respect historic context and pedestrian scale are essential to creating great buildings and enduring places.

The central city must set the standard for design excellence. One need only contrast the pedestrian-friendly urban environment of the SouthSide Works to the big-box suburban sprawl of The Waterfront in Homestead to witness how design matters.

Pittsburgh has many institutions -- Riverlife, Community Design Center, Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, Sustainable Pittsburgh and neighborhood-based groups -- that advocate for good urban design. Their roles are vital in balancing private and public interests.

3 Connectivity is key.

Since every project is part of the overall urban fabric, how projects connect to each other and to the city is a central tenet of urban design. Streets, public transit, bikeways and connected green space weave the city together. They are the basic frameworks for city design.

This year Pittsburgh is embarking on developing its first-ever comprehensive plan. The first two work elements are open space and transportation, the two most important connective frameworks.

The Port Authority of Allegheny County is investigating a rapid bus connection between Downtown and Oakland, the second- and third-largest economic centers in Pennsylvania. Councilman Bill Peduto is pushing for a crosstown rail connection from the Pittsburgh Technology Center on the Monongahela River through Oakland to Lawrenceville on the Allegheny River.

4 The automobile does not rule.

Cities are about people, not cars. Cities are successfully dismantling obsolete freeways that separate neighborhoods, undoing one-way street patterns from the 1950s, encouraging bicycling with bike lanes and trails, and expanding public transit with streetcars and rubber wheeled trolleys.

The development of bike trails and bike lanes in the past 10 years in Pittsburgh has greatly increased bicycle commuting. Compared with other cities of its size, Pittsburgh has the highest percentage of daily transit use to its employment centers. Over 50 percent of workers and visitors arrive in Downtown and Oakland by public transit. The undoing of the ring roads in East Liberty and Allegheny Center is yet to be accomplished.

5 Public/Private partnerships work.

Most urban redevelopment projects require public investment: roads and sewers, parking, land write downs, tax abatements and tax increment financing. Private investment in challenging redevelopment projects follows when the pump is primed by the public.

Pittsburgh was one of the first cities in the United States to have an Urban Redevelopment Authority. Since 1946 the URA has partnered with the private sector to develop Gateway Center, Liberty Center, Crawford Square and the SouthSide Works, to name four of the most successful projects.

6 Wishing will not make it so.

Projects must have a sound financial basis to justify private and public investment. Market studies and cost/benefit studies help mayors identify which projects are feasible and will justify public investment.

The failure of the Lazarus and Lord & Taylor projects Downtown and the difficulty of financing a new hotel next to the convention center are evidence of the importance of the financial bottom line for public/private partnerships.

7 You can't do everything at once.

Mayors have many problems to deal with including pensions, public safety and budget concerns. Redevelopment must be undertaken strategically with clear priorities established so that projects are not done outside of the broader goals of the city. Make every project count.

A good example is Eastside, the URA-sponsored project in East Liberty with The Mosites Co. that started with a pioneering Whole Foods and has continued with a Borders and other retail. Adjacent properties and blocks that would have continued to deteriorate are now being redeveloped.

8 Sustainable development pays.

Best practices for storm water management, brownfield cleanup and LEED-certified buildings produce financial payback to cities. They favor conservation of green space, and preservation and adaptive reuse over demolition. Pittsburgh is a world leader in sustainable development. With projects like Summerset at Frick Park, The Cork Factory, PNC Service Center, Washington's Landing, and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Pittsburgh is striving to become a leader in sustainable design.)

Yet to be solved is the combined sewer overflow problem in Allegheny County that will require innovative sustainable practices in storm water management, such as on-site infiltration and rain gardens, to reduce the enormous cost of piping and retention installations that would otherwise be required using standard civil engineering practices.

9 Learn from others.

In addition to the seven case studies presented by the mayors, each mayor in the course of the discussions over the two days pointed to some of their redevelopment successes. It was invaluable for the mayors to hear from each other and from the design professionals how problems nearly identical to theirs had been solved in other cities.

Pittsburgh can learn from Chattanooga, Portland, Austin, Denver and -- yes -- even Cleveland and Philadelphia, where innovative redevelopment and sustainable projects are being undertaken, including creative use of vacant and abandoned properties for open space, storm water management, rapid bus transit and urban agriculture.

10 The city needs a vision.

Mayors must have an overall strategy for development. Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago (the "Green Mayor") and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City ("PlaNYC 2030") are examples of mayors who have set a clear vision for their cities. Every public or private project is thus seen in the context of whether it enhances or detracts from that vision.

The seven Midwest mayors who visited Pittsburgh got that message.

What's happening in ....

... Elkhart, Indiana:

Over the last 18 to 24 months our community drew national attention due to the slowed economy and high unemployment that swept the country. But 2010 is looking up.

Our business community is beginning to grow again. The Think Electric car assembly plant is opening in 2011. There's a somewhat cautious revival of our musical instrument industry with the expansion of a local company founded in Elkhart in 1906, and the growth of smaller and more economical recreational vehicles utilizing more green technology.

Many smaller projects still face challenges due in part to restrictive lending standards. But our downtown continues to see business growth with several new restaurants opening, a $16 million restoration and expansion of the 1924 Lerner Theatre and a number of smaller boutique businesses opening over the last year and a half.

The RiverWalk built along the Elkhart River provides an excellent backdrop for three new office buildings -- a water and ice park, and a regional college building.

We are finishing up Racine's downtown plan. Businesses tapped into grants to restore the historic facades of their buildings, bringing back to the 1880s original style. It has transformed the look of our downtown.

We are now moving into the next phase as we head west along highway 20 into our Uptown area, a hard-hit, depressed area of high unemployment, crime and dilapidated buildings.

We are giving artists incentives to populate Uptown. With a new Community Oriented Policing House in the area to address crime, a "building for a buck" program and our lighting and redevelopment plan, we believe we can turn around the Uptown area and make it the place to be for artists and all residents.

Charleston is located at the confluence of the Kanawha and Elk rivers. The Kanawha is almost 600 feet wide with steep landscaped embankments on the side. At the top of the northern embankment runs Kanawha Boulevard, a four-lane thoroughfare completed in 1940 by the Works Progress Administration.

In 2006 Saskai Associates completed the Charleston Riverfront Master Plan. The major design principles included: create a more accessible and usable walking and bicycling trail along the riverfront; integrate neighborhoods and downtown with the river; enhance areas for special events on the river; and enhance the recreational, historic and cultural qualities of the river.

Haddad Riverfront Park was constructed 20 years ago. It was designed to be a concrete seating bowl that looks out over the river where the city can hold special events such as Fourth of July fireworks and live concerts throughout the summer.

Construction has started at the park on a fabric canopy over the seating bowl that will make the park a more comfortable space in hot weather. The canopy will also be retractable for cool days or for viewing firework shows. Betty Schoenbaum, the widow of Shoney's founder Alex Schoenbaum (who in 1947 opened his first drive-in restaurant, Parkette, in Charleston), donated funds for the construction of a floating stage at the park. The design borrows imagery from the paddle wheel of a sternwheeler that will help enhance the historic qualities of the river.

The city has also started streetscape work that will add brick-inlaid crosswalks that better tie downtown to the riverfront and add special emphasis on the riverfront park. A scenic overlook will be started this spring that will provide a terminus view at the end of Court Street and will also give local vendors a marketplace. This overlook will be a fabric tent-like structure to play of the seating bowl canopy.

Donald K. Carter
, FAIA, is the David Lewis Director of the Remaking Cities Institute at CMU (
doncarter@cmu.edu
). He is consulting principal and past president of Urban Design Associates. The Mayors' Institute was funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the American Architectural Foundation.
The Next Page is different every week: John Allison,
jallison@post-gazette.com
, 412-263-1915 First Published March 7, 2010 5:00 AM